As the Crusades are ending, a Templar knight escapes the terror of a tyrannical King and falls into a mythological war that will decide the future of humanity.Kaiya held a magical power in her blood to make the night creatures immune to the sun. Byron's assignment was easy, to make her fall in love with him and have her offer her blood to him and all the vampires in Connor's coven. There was just one thing he wasn't allowed to do: fall in love with her. Will he follow the rules and be faithful to his maker or will he turn his back on his own kind just to save her? With so much to lose the choice won’t be easy

He knows the value of life. She's still learning. What would you do if you had one last moment to say goodbye? Would you take it? (While this book is about Nick and Carrie, two brand new characters, the Reeds - the whole lot of them - do show up in this book. And there might even be a teeny-tiny little Reed Brothers reveal hidden in the pages. Shh! Don't tell anyone!)

What is popular culture and how does it evolve and grow? How do people establish core beliefs and do these beliefs affect their perception of the universe? These questions are probed in this groundbreaking essay.In popular culture many paradigms exist alongside each other, none of which are right or wrong. There is no one real meaning to life, only a set of possible paths leading in many directions. The area that should be investigated, however, is the development of propaganda and its influence on the shaping of our shared symbol system, and the possible influence these systems may have on what Carl Jung referred to as “the collective unconsciousness.” Is there a telepathic field shared by all humanity? Or thousands of mini-fields competing for the telepathic airwaves?A unique history of popular culture is explored, one that places Congo Square in New Orleans at its epicenter.

Brilliant artist John Andrews is a mortal man like any other, but with one exception: he is almost six hundred years old. A story of deception, discovery and determination, Rare Traits follows a Renaissance artist's struggle for survival through the centuries and in the present day where modern technology unravels the secrets of his DNA, posing yet further threats to his existence.As gifted as any of the Old Masters, portrait and landscape painter John Andrews has an extraordinary talent. He also has an extraordinary secret – at almost 600 years old, the reclusive artist now living in England's Lake District is still as youthful as he was back in the 1460s. Born Luca di Stefano in early Renaissance Tuscany, he is apprenticed to the great fresco painter, Piero della Francesca. Luca enjoys perfect health – no disease ever touches him – but as the years pass, he realises that there is something else profoundly mysterious about him: he is not ageing. At sixty, his youthful looks become a threat to his life when a fanatical and over-zealous Church wants him burnt at the stake as an heretic, a servant of the Devil. Fleeing to Naples, he adopts a new identity and starts a new life, the first of many artistic personas through the centuries. But the threat of discovery and its consequences are never far away. Fast forward to 2009 when John Andrews’ DNA is profiled. As the mystery of its full significance is slowly unravelled, John's existence is again threatened: it is not only geneticists who are interested in his incredible DNA, there are others desperate for the secret of John’s longevity who will stop at nothing to get it. And to compound John's problems, an art historian is convinced that he has unmasked a major forger. An international, fast-moving suspense thriller set throughout the world during the past six centuries, Rare Traits interweaves the present and the past, self-preservation and murder, art history and forensic science as it unfolds the tale of the apparently immortal John Andrews. It traces his lovers, his families, his enemies and friends, and above all it traces the challenges he faces in order to survive. For no matter how long he lives, one thing is certain: John can never stop looking over his shoulder.

Remembering all those who died in WWI on it's 100th anniversary.Rivalry in a village. Opportunity and fortune come from the soil. Bringing the downfall of another.….4th August 1914. Britain declares war on Germany.Private Thomas Millward is surrounded by death and looking straight into hell. Normal human kindness has been absent in his life for a while, but he has a choice to make. A choice that all humans must make when in the wake of death.Will his memories of life remember the brutality and desperate actions humans will take in the world of war? Will war, blood, revenge, anger, hatred and hunter be his last thoughts?Or will he remember the bravery, kindness and courage of friends, brothers and even childhood enemies?

When Bunnie's Easter basket gets chosen by Johanna's daddy, a world of adventures begins. In their first adventure, Bunnie and Johanna go on a surprise trip to a museum.When Portia Simpson implemented tax on patty, it mad Dr. Bert Kemp, a psychiatrist. He then became a fat ninja, hell bent on murdering Portia Simpson’s head-crown, so every patty can be tax-free. His wife, Marjorie, decides to take care of her mentally-touched husband and hopes she has the strength to stick by him for better or worse. But as she unbearably loses everything and everyone because of Bert’s insanity, she crumbles, thinking she’s holding on to dead hope for her husband to regain his sanity, but will it ever happen? Scorned by her friends and family for living with a madman her only listening ear is the handsome, thick-bodied Dr. Arnold who wants her for himself. Bert grows jealous and goes to utterly unsound measures to keep his wife’s love but instead, is pushing her away. The ultimate question then is, “Will Bert ever get to take off the Right Honourable Portia Simpson’s head-crown?”EXCERPT 1Marj looked at him and the wrinkles straightened out her face. “See how mi smart? You nuh see how fast mi mek you reach yah?” Bert asked, “You lucky you come quick though enuh, a light mi did gone light the gas cylinder and mi couldn’t find the matches, you think you coulda out it in time if mi did get fi put mi hand pon the matches? You stay deh, you woulda blow till you weak you couldn’t put out that deh big fire deh mi woulda set the house pon. A woulda bun dung the whole a in yah then claim insurance.”She threw her hand up and slapped her forehead harder than she intended to. She wanted to be angry, but when she looked in his eyes she breathed out some of the fire out her chest and shook her head. Her voice lowered,“Bert, that’s a boxing ring Hun, I can’t wear that.”She repeated her mantra, “For better or for worse Lord, for better or for worse.”EXCERPT 2Six and a half hours later, Marj came in the evening and was greeted by the Vybz Kartel, he was blasting in the house, ‘Cock it up pon the Dumper Truck’. Her ears hurt. But what was more alarming to her senses was a smell. She was smelling heat, stale heat like an iron left in fire. Something was burning. She charged into her living room. Bert still had the curling iron plugged in, until it was dangerously hot and red.“What are you doing Bert?!”Bert was reclined on his back in the sofa, he offhandedly answered,“Clearlyyyy,” he dragged on the word ‘clearly’ for emphasis, because she must have been blind not to recognize what he was doing, “what I’m trying to do here Marj. I’m trying to master level seven of Ninja’s Thermatology, where my eyes can absorb the direct heat from the hot curling iron. Alsooo, . . . mi can absorb the heat wid the inside a mi bottom lip. Ain’t that obvious?”EXCERPT 3Bert totally oblivious to the hill and gully in his chest that Clivey was talking about, Bert indifferently said,“A suh mi chest stay. Mi a get thick from morning. No pills.”“No Bert, mi know a nuh suh it stay. Mi know a sponge under deh fi buff up your chest. Mi a nuh idiot.”Bert slammed down his fart tonic on the bench and said,“You chat too much. A mi chest. A mi so-so chest.”“A nuh your chest. Lift up your blouse mek mi see if a so-so chest under deh.”Same time Clivey spotted the piece of sponge shifted up at the neck of his blouse. It was obvious now. A piece a sponge Bert have underneath deh. Bert replied,“Weh mi a tell lie fa!” He kissed his teeth and blatantly said, “God kill mi right yahso ten time if mi a tell lie.

A large collection of verses on the titleThe Case of the Misplaced Hero was originally written as a twice-a-week serial for the Daring Novelist blog. Here is the whole story collected into one novella-length volume -- 42 episodes, plus the teaser episode that leads into the next story.When Alex was a child his eccentric aunt gave him a ring and told him that one day he should go jump in a lake. He never knew what to make of that, and never tried doing it, until one day at college, he tries to rescue his drunken professor from falling in a river. They both plunge in... and come up in a very different river, in a land that reminds Alex very much of the stories his aunt used to tell: a world like old adventure books and silent movie serials. It's a dream come true, except that his drunken old professor gets himself lost and arrested. Alex must find and rescue him, and return him home, before the old fool gets shot as a spy.

My selected poems.Exchange student Paprika is living her new life happily in Japan with her best friend Juicy, when one day her cousin Chibiham asks to come visit for a month in the summer. Not having seen her in some time, Paprika heartily agrees. What she is dealt with is far worse than she could have imagined - her entitled, ill-mannered, boorish relative takes Japan by storm, ready to plow down anything that stands in the way of her seeing the country exactly the way she imagined it. Can Paprika and Juicy tame the wild American before the month is up? And what happens when the rotund terror meets up with an immovable force - the immortal Mama?A funny, true story about an overbearing tourist in Japan, complete with tour guiding, cultural explanations, and Japanese recipes. Born of the Reddit storytellers, a success story of a different flavor. Experience it for yourself.

When 2 people find themselves on a rooftop in Westport, Connecticut ready to kill themselves, they find maybe their lives aren't the only ones at risk.When Sid Parks runs to the rooftop of an apartment building in Westport, CT she meets Quinn Handlen. They are both ready to jump when Sid realizes the Quinn is putting the entire building in danger. In effort to save her family, one heroic action turns back the fabric of time, giving her 24 hours to fix Quinn's mistake.

They’re serving up some red-hot revenge. A sizzling series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Rachel van Dyken. Blaire has never quite gotten over Jessie Beckett, the ex–NFL star whose kisses were hot enough to ignite the entire Eastern Seaboard. When he chose work over her, Blaire was left brokenhearted. Why else would she have married a skeezy two-timer, just to divorce him less than a year later? Now Blaire is getting even by becoming one half of Dirty Exes, a PI firm fully committed to humiliating cheating jerks. If only the new jerk she’s been hired to uncover wasn’t Jessie Beckett himself. Exposing Jessie isn’t going to be easy, especially when she still daydreams about his sexy smile. Further complicating matters is Colin, Jessie’s best friend. He’s gorgeous, a little bit cunning, and willing to help Blaire get the inside scoop on Jessie—for a price. Now caught between two men—one totally right and the other totally wrong—Blaire will need to decide just how much she’s willing to risk…and whom she’s willing to risk it for.

Rayford Steele and Cameron "Buck" Williams find themselves pressed into service for the man they believe could be the Antichrist. Nicolae Carpathia takes over the United Nations, signs a peace treaty with Israel, and begins to lure the nations of earth together to form one global village. As believers band together following the Rapture, their peaceful world is destroyed again when global war erupts. A repackage of the "New York Times" best-selling second book in the Left Behind series.